


Down to Zero

by X0DanseMacabre0X



Series: Bonds stronger than life [1]
Category: Naruto
Genre: F/M, Other
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2010-10-05
Updated: 2010-10-05
Packaged: 2017-10-12 10:30:33
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Underage
Chapters: 1
Words: 8,517
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/123928
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/X0DanseMacabre0X/pseuds/X0DanseMacabre0X
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Nevermore, Quoth said the Raven. Nevermore, I will be innocent. Nevermore I will be able to wash the blood off of my once-white hands. 105 years and counting, I carry the knowledge of six, soon to be seven lives. born, live, die- that is my cycle of those years, my agony and my salvation. But, there is a price to having this knowledge. I don't pass my fifteenth birthday without dying. but, as my seventh death came to pass, something went wrong...terribly wrong...</p>
            </blockquote>





	Down to Zero

Tap, tap, tap…

I found myself staring blankly at a blank piece of paper on my desk, just tapping my pencil as my mind went bye-bye.

 

" MISS XAPHA!" a rather screechy voice pierced my eardrums, forcing me wince and look up into the eyes of my rake-lookalike teacher, Mrs. Underpike.

" Yes, Mrs. Underpike?" I asked in a flat tone, not especially appreciating the invasion of my virtual sleeping with my eyes open. In all honesty, would it really kill her for one of her students to so much as slump their shoulders in front of her?  
She unknowingly gave my answer as she adopted a sneer and opened her big, fat mouth.

" I realize that today is your birthday, Miss Xapha, but it does not mean that you can slack off!" the woman snapped out like an expert, glare and everything as she bored holes into me through a pair of steel rims.

Too bad it didn't work on me…I wasn't your average student, ready to pee their pants like a geek under a jock who demanded your lunch money. Or bus money, take your pick. I, your not-so-average, not-terribly-unassuming teenager who lived a boring as hell life and had experienced the brutalities of depression under sheer boredom and boring predictabilities, have experienced too many things that would cause battle-hardened men to wet their pants to even think about. So, after all that…is it really a surprise I only met that glare with pure boredom?

However, back on topic…she could be a pain in the ass, like she was being now. And in order for her to leave me the hellion alone, I needed to do one thing, and one thing only:

" I'm sorry." Of course, I was anything but, but I schooled my features into the proper expression, tearful puppy eyes and all.   
Like clockwork, her cross expression melted away into a kindly smile (Which I had to say, looked a little odd on her) as she accepted my fake apology and began the lecture again.

I sighed as I lowered my head and began going on autopilot as my hand began recording all that her grating voice said. However, my mind began drifting into a rather unwelcome train of thought.

No one knows what happens when you die, right?  
Well- unless you're me.   
I, Cain Mirror Xapha, have died six times. I should know what happens, right?  
The answer is yes, I do. The process is simple for me:  
Get born, usually live until you are fifteen years of age, and die. Repeat, only you know exactly what happened in your previous lives.

So, why was this train of thought particularly unpleasant? Fifteen is a long ways away, right?

Wrong. Absolutely wrong.  
Today was my fifteenth birthday, and I am going to die.

At stumbling across that particular though once more, I winced slightly at the thought. I had numbed some of the anguish under the boredom that always lurked behind the surface, but obviously it wasn't going to do much good if I always stumbled across my newfound angst.

" So what's it going to be now…?" I whispered, my words barely there as I mused sardonically upon my own death. " Gunshot? Choking upon a ruler? Bleeding to death by being stapled? Drowning in a toilet?" I mouthed, my eyes glazing over as I stared at neat orders of words that I had written in my snugly calm script- an ironic parody of my turmoil of emotions.

Inside my head however, I actually thought seriously about what would be the quickest death for me.  
Scenarios flashed quickly before me. Drugs overdose (not aspirin-it would end up into a painful stomachache, but sleeping pills.) suffocating in a trash can, being tossed into the nearby river, cut jugular-

Suddenly, it came to me in a flash, making my hand actually stop in astonishment.

Earlier this week, I had taken a shortcut to my shared apartment with my cousin. However, it was murders spot for a girl my age-only a few hours later. As a result, my cousin expressly forbids me to go down it again.

Cause of Death: gunshot to the head.

I smiled grimly. Knowing my morbid luck on this special day, there would be the murderer, all ready and waiting to shoot me to death. Or, at least I hoped that he would…I had no preference for being hung or the such.

Brrriiiinng!

" And the bells toll," I muttered ironically as I swept my notebook into my backpack and went out of the school, into sunshine and too many kids to count as I was swept out, like a tidal wave.  
Eventually, the tidal wave lessened and I found myself near the lights that signified crossing the street. Momentarily, I wondered if I should throw myself in front of a car…then I decided that no, my cousin wouldn't terribly appreciate it if I had to be scraped off of the pavement.

Sighing in resignation, I swept my eyes around for the familiar crack in the wall-like alley across the street, a song echoing in my ears as I found the alley; a man was already in it.  
A bitter smirk twisted my lips as I waited patiently for the light to change for the sidewalk.  
" I'm invincible, I'm indestructible, and it's my destiny…"   
The light flashed to " Walk," and I began walking upon the pavement.  
" I'm invincible, I'm unshakable, through the truth of myself…" I whispered quietly, pulling a stray strand of dark, inky black hair behind my ear as I watched the man-shaped figure in the alley shift uncomfortably. Still though, I walked to my own demise.  
" You know you just can't kill a man when he's dead, you know the spirit survives…" I murmured musing whom else could have killed me if I didn't go this way. Perhaps a teacher, maybe my cousin.   
It was probably better this way. This guy and I don't know each other, and we'll go our separate ways once he's done.

Nevertheless, when I reached the other side of the street, I simply stood there, drinking in everything.  
Today was bad traffic jam-lots of horn honking. And honestly, they gotta stop pumping weird shit into the air. I looked up. Cloudy.

" I wonder if the sky will cry for me when I'm gone…" I wondered softly, then shook my head and steadied myself- I readied myself for my execution: this was no time to entertain romantic fantasies, after all.

Blinking away some moisture in my eyes, I hardened myself and I walked steadily into the alley and saw the man, polishing his gun.  
" Hello, little girl." He said rather amicably, not even pausing in his buffing as he gave me a courteous smile of a predator, a sheet of dirty blonde hair swinging trimly upon his shoulders, and his eyes sharp and keen as he smiled that dangerous smile at me.

But even as he smiled at me, I could see a familiar cast to the deadly sharpness to in his eyes- I would know; I had possessed it once upon a time…I still imagined that I sometimes did. Yes, this man was a killer.

I grinned ruefully. " Hey, Mister."

He shrugged, accepting that I had apparently decided to be polite about my own death. " So, any last words?" Straight to the point, I saw.

" Eh…well actually I'd like a request, and I want to ask you a question." I decided upon a sudden whim, still smiling ruefully at I stared directly into the killer's eyes.

" Request? Questions? I don't have too much time for that, but I reserve the right to not answer if it's too ridiculous." The man dragged out in a deliberate drawl, a careless grin spreading across his sharp, angular features.

My smile stretched just a little wider in answer, but in all honesty it was too bitter to be called a smile. " My request is that you shoot me somewhere where it'll be an instant death- preferably execution style." I said bluntly.

A raise in the eyebrows was all the expression that my killer partook as he asked incredulously:" Seriously?"

" Well, yeah…I got to die sometime, and this is a good time." Oh, if he only knew. I know it's stupid to actually converse with a man who's going to kill you- especially if you had a choice. But even if I could escape him, someone closer to me may kill me, and I really didn't want a chance of that.

" Alright, what's your question?"  
I bit my lip, the haunting of an old song that floated through my room whenever my cousin was depressed, running through my head.

" What makes you live this kind of life?" I asked in real curiosity.

The man smiled dangerously as he swept the gun into position. " That's it?"  
" Yeah. Go for it." I said calmly,   
The man shook his head in wry amusement. " You're a truly strange girl…well, you know there ain't no rest for the wicked, until we close our rest for good."

Bang.

I felt my body flail as the lovely bullet pierce my skull and into my brain, my life flashing briefly before me as I felt my body settle into a momentary finality.

Moments after my body collapsed upon the ground, I found myself able to move again- and out of my body.   
I climbed out of my body, my spirit already transparent as I looked irately at the man who killed me.  
" That jackass, where does he come from where he gets to diss me as I fucking die! I know I got the question from the damn song, but it doesn't mean he has to throw it back in my god damned face when he's got a gun to my effing head!" I ranted; sweeping a heavily booted foot at his face even though it wouldn't do any good- the most he could get would be a cold sensation.

Sure enough, he simply shivered a bit and walked off into the alley, preferring to leave my corpse.  
My transparent eye spasmed. " Fine, be that way, you idiot. It's not like I WANTED to die, but nooo, I have to die every time I turn fifteen!"

I sat down on the pavement, Indian style. " I hope that the cops throw you in jail with a bunch of people just like you, you little shit." I pouted, knowing this was likely to be the case if they ever got him. " Oh well…"  
Numbness began spreading through my toes, and I sighed, then glanced at my slowly non-existent feet. " Terrific, its already time?" I mused quietly, raising a non-existent foot to hold out in front of my face.

I had expected as much, I suppose. Life isn't kind after your dead. In fact, life never is. Speaking of life…

" Well, life," I said quietly, feeling rather weary all of a sudden. " I hope you are at least exciting next time, unlike this one."

A smattering of plops caught my attention, and I wistfully turned my gaze to up above.

It was raining.

" The sky is crying after all…" I murmured, smiling slightly as I stared up at the grey clouds of rain, ignoring the cries of surprise and annoyance outside of the miserable alley- they didn't know I was dead, did they? Not exactly my problem.

I bent over to my dead body and scrutinized it, wondering what showed exactly on my face as I died.

My eyes were wide and glassy-like green marbles…

Feeling slightly disturbed at the comparison, I shifted my eyes in a more general direction; My face was determined and warrior-like, but it was spoiled by two things: the gunshot in between my eyes, and a small smile on my ruby-red lips, previously affected by the cold-apparently, it hadn't had the time to sink back into wherever it would settle.

My body was in a spread-eagle position; almost mocking in is desolate position.

I smiled rather cynically as a whim passed through my thoughts; I leant down in what was left of me and began arranging my limbs (whenever I died, I found I could do some movements- this was apparently one of them) and when I finished, I barked out a short laugh at the simple irony I had created with my corpse.

My body was in a crude parody of the cross, just like the Jesus that never came for my overused soul and me.

Smirking slightly, I stood up and looked at my soon-to-disappear hands; already, my waist had disappeared and it was on to my rib area.

" I have been killed, and I have killed. I'll do it again, too… but for a damn good reason."

My fingertips were starting to disappear into the numbness that was around 79% percent of my body.

Dropping my hands, I quietly mused where I was going to go.  
" Make it good, next life…"

 

Suddenly, the numbness spread with an overwhelming force, causing confusion to spark up for a split second before I was stuck into something-  
Like a black hole, everywhere and no time, like a second and a century stuffed into each other.

 

Suddenly, I " Woke."

I slowly opened my eyes, fully expecting to see a hospital or some woman of some sort. Instead, I saw murkiness…was it nighttime? I tried to breath, with no luck.  
Hmm…it was peaceful here…I could die like this…I absently mused, a dreamy smile drifting its way onto my features. Warning alarms were setting off in my head, but it was quickly stifled as a growing euphoria spread throughout my brain.

Colors of all shades began swimming its way in my vision next, and I inwardly giggled softly, feeling rather like Alice Liddell, who stepped through the looking glass.

Even as the hazily lovely colors took over my vision, phantom feathers of darkly purple butterflies began dancing before my eyes, like an insect opera.  
I felt happy for a long moment.

Until Logic kicked in, and I began wondering why they were there.  
I tried moving a hand; it encountered something that felt like….

Water.

Suddenly, everything came to me with a horrifying, crystal-cut panic.  
I was drowning.

Adrenaline pumped through me, disrupting my lethargy and hallculations momentarily as I looked frantically around and tried to swim upwards, with no success: something was tying me down.

I looked down and saw a large boulder tied to what seemed to be my legs; I bent down slowly, creakily, and began fumbling with the crudely done, but effective knots holding me in place.  
After what seemed to be an eternity, I had set myself free and I tried climbing to the surface, with only minimal success. I looked around the murky depths of the cloudy, almost misty-like water in frustration and confusion, wondering what I had to do to get to the surface and get a hold of some air.

A flash of memory from my seventh life came to me, a swimming instructor recounting the first time he almost drowned; He only managed getting to the surface by forcibly relaxing his body to let himself float to the surface.

So after a moment of deliberation, that's what I did.

Slowly, I let my legs out from a cramped position that they were forced into by the rock; I did the same for my other limbs and appendages.   
In the end of it, I straightened my torso as well.

Slowly but surely, I began rising- or was I sinking down? I couldn't tell, but I held some hope in my spread-eagled position of mine.

The phantom butterflies were returning, just feathering the edge of my sight- I wished that they weren't just my imagination, that I could touch them…

If I was going to choose my next life, I had better god damn have some wings, or I was going to get pissed, I randomly thought as my fingers stroked in the water, trying to feel the imaginary butterflies in vain.

Then something flashed in my mind.  
My appendages were too large to be a baby's, much less a toddlers.

Oh, shit.

My mind raced frantically, trying to make sense of this new development. Why was I down here, even? Why was I older than a baby? In fact, I should have just popped out of my new mom's womb- no; I got stuck down here, drowning in a body of water.

Even if I was a baby, it's a little unlikely that I was tossed down here with a huge bolder. I wouldn't be able to swim, anyhow.

But judging by the size of my limbs, I must be around 6-8. But in all honesty, I looked more like six.

So, what did a six-year old do to get tossed down here? That was the real question.

Suddenly, my back registered a coldness that didn't seem to come from the water- something like Air.

I felt a grin stretch my face, my complentation about my surprising age forgotten as I straightened myself upright.

Overjoyed at the thought of oxygen, I tried to breath in an intake of air.

Bad Idea.

I began coughing violently- violently enough that I was sent back into the water, where I began inhaling it.  
Learning quickly that it would be best that I didn't breath before I got to wherever shore may be, or some kind of relatively stable place, I struggled to not cough once more, straightened myself, and looked around.

Shore, thankfully was a pebbled beach and only a couple of yards away.

Unable to stop myself, I inwardly cheered again before lifting my weakened limbs in a poor parody of the freestyle.

Splash, splash, splash, splash, splash…

 

Dive arm weakly into water, make your legs imitate the dying of a motorboat rudder, repeat.

This pattern continued on for a little while before my hand struck pebbles-aka the shore.

Relief flooded through me as I crawled to a more stable part of the pebbled shore and began coughing, unable to stop myself from restraining the natural instinct to expel anything that threatened how my body functions.

After a long minute of coughing, I simply laid my head down on the cold pebbles to think- and to plan.

" That boulder was too big for a rival child who may have wished me harm," I eventually decided in a ragged whisper. " It probably was an adult… But then, an adult has a trigger in its mind to care for a small child, whether it bee theirs or someone else's. So, unless that person is a psycho as well as being abnormally strong, then something must of happened…something big."

I wondered inwardly what I could have done in this body of mine. It seemed rather unlikely that I killed a commanding chief or something, or harmed another child badly on purpose….  
I shook my head. No time to get morbid again, I had just nearly died twice…first to plan, then to angst.

Well, number one thing was to regain some strength, take off the clothes to dry, and check out my new body. I needed to know how it would benefit me in my unusual current state.  
Most importantly however…I needed to know which gender I was.

That led to a dry chuckle. Six years old, and already gender confused. My cousin in my last life would laugh herself sick at the implications.

I rolled my eyes, smiling slightly. If I was cracking jokes, then I was good to go- or so my training instructor said in life number four. I decided to heed as such.

I flexed my fingers.

They responded.

I lifted one arm.   
Same.

I grinned victoriously. " Alright new life, bring it on." Okay, maybe that was a bit pushing it, but whatever. I was able to put through phase one of my plan-thing! That called for some celebrating.

Grunting slightly, I shakily got off the pebbled sand and dusted myself clean of any wet pebbles stubborn enough to stay on.  
Quickly, before I possibly collapsed again, I deposited of my wet clothing and laid them out to dry.

Smiling in a satisfied fashion, I began the second part of my plan.

I leaned over the water to look at my reflection.

I gasped.

Bruises littered every direction possible over my abnormally pale skin, and bones stretched out harshly through said skin everywhere I looked. Not to mention my eyes were simply too large for my face as well…and oddly enough, they possessed a haunted look not seen since my fourth life- that life, I was possessed of the positions as " lab rat" and " assassin."

You can guess how my emotional state was back then- Killing people who had done me no harm, ordered the people who injected me with things that sent me into torrents of agony and abnormalities that sprouted left and right?  
No. Not good.

With a shuddering breath, I forced myself away from those traumatic thoughts and returned to inspecting my appearance.

My hair was a limp, soaked mess of inky black strands, and my eyes were a curious emerald green, but with a sort of gold undertone.  
I looked down.

Well, I had girl parts. Thank god.

I wrinkled my nose in distaste when I rather vividly remembered being born as a boy noble in my fifth life. The worst part of it was that I still liked guys, even though I was a boy myself. I quickly learned to be bisexual after that…being tortured by your own father does a lot to your sexual orientation.

I let out an annoyed exhale of breath, just remembering what I had to go through in that particular life just pissed me off to no end. I still wanted to bitch slap that son of a fish who spawned me to be a " proper" noble.

Shaking my head in an effort to draw my mind off of it, I frowned in concentration and began plotting-err, thinking. Yes, thinking about what I would do now.  
Well…first things first: look around you; draw some information from your situation.  
So I did. The water-thing I had fallen into was apparently reticent of a water-filled ditch. How nice, I got tossed into a ditch. Stupid not-quite-toddler killers…

Incidentally, I looked up…and my jaw dropped.

The sky wasn't just an ordinary sky. It resembled a giant, white puzzle board with a purple undertone.

I blinked, closing my mouth with a snap. Well, that was an unexpected sight.   
" Toto, I don't think we're in Kansas anymore…" I muttered, my figurative hackles rising in anticipitation.

Something was up, and I wasn't entirely sure if it was good. The sky was ordinarily blue and possibly grey or white; unless I had magically landed in the Land of Oz, I'm pretty sure that I was in a different place…a different world.  
Well, no. That seemed a little far-fetched. Who knows, it just might be a hologram…

I nearly snorted, my brain making a quick reference to the " matrix" movies.  
Well, if it was the Matrix, then the whole " ooh, let's make the sky WHITE puzzle pieces!" wasn't going ta do much for the human race….  
Biting my lip in an attempt to stifle sudden laughter, I shook my head and began planning once again- at least it would serve a good purpose.

Let's see…if there was a town, there was probably information. If there was information, then at least, they could tell me where I was and what was the language. At most however, they could tell me who I was, and why I was tossed in a watery ditch.

If there wasn't a town…. well, grab something that can hold water (Cloth, Cup, didn't really matter…) and start heading out of there and journey to somewhere that in fact, did.

I considered these two options. " Sounds good." I eventually decided, looking towards my clothes- they were nearly dry.

Now was a good time as of anything to get outta here and explore the new life I've been put into. The clothes (which consisted of a tank top and shorts, both worn into a dirty grey) would dry while I was running around, anyway.

I quickly dressed into the clothes and looked around, eager to get out: thankfully, the walls of the ditch weren't so high that it was impossible to get out.  
Not to mention, there were plenty of roots poking out. I could get out using a method of climbing…hopefully these roots were at least a little stable.

Grabbing a root to my immediate left, I began hoisting myself up.

Thankfully I was lucky and my hand only grasped stable handholds; soon I was able to climb out of the ditch and settle upon a curiously stone pavement.

It appeared my suspicions were correct- there was a town nearby. In fact, I was in the middle of one…. how weird. Clearly, my supposed murderers were a bunch of idiots to drop me into somewhere like that. It would have been much easier to carry me out somewhere, and then leave me to die.

Shaking my head, I began looking around. Mist surrounded the place in a thick fog, making the buildings seem dark and mysterious.

Odd…there wasn't any electricity… I noted as I looked around.

Hm. It looked like a ghost town.

Shrugging, I began on my way to read something-anything, but then I saw people in the windows of the houses, all closing their windows as I passed by them.

This was getting weirder and weirder. Was I feared or something? I mean…I was just your ordinary, if abused six-year-old, right? I was pretty sure I didn't have the correct mindset to do something THAT bad…

Shaking my head frantically, I tried to offset the sudden tidal wave of apprehension and fear, which began pumping it's way into my veins.

It was in all in vain: I was overwhelmed in teeth-chattering icy fear and nervous apprehension.

Suddenly, my small feet had stopped and I wondered why; I glanced upwards.

There, in Japanese was plainly written " Information Center."

A shivering, victorious grin spread across my features.

I read the sign over and over again, hardly believing my luck. So, the place spoke Japanese, and there was more information to be found?

Truly, there were only four words that could describe the situation.  
" In your face, life!"

Grinning widely now, I pushed open the door and simply walked in, letting my guard down ever so slightly as I went in.

Bad mistake.

A grey-and-purple blur rushed to receive me; in what must be the blur's hand, my mind registered one thing:  
It held a very sharp, shiny knife.

Acting on pure training built into me from my time as assassin, I jumped as far into the air as I could, landed in back of the blur, kicked the body's small of back, grabbed the hand that held the knife, and twisted sharply.

With a pained gasp, the person's fingers loosened and the knife clattered on the floor.

" What the hell was that for?" I demanded in an irate hiss, still clutching on the hand for what strength I held left. Hopefully my speaking in Japanese would do the trick and give me an answer.

" You're supposed to be dead." A flat voice answered back (in Japanese, so I must have chosen correctly) in a deep voice- too deep to be a woman's, so I assumed it would be a mans. Either way, his hair was in a ponytail, so I could be excused for his gender confusion.

" Too bad for you. You tried to kill me, then?" I answered in a sick sort of calm as I wrenched his arm back further.

" Yeah. So did Kinamaro and Mina." Whoever those were, I wasn't terribly sure. But hey, one bird in the hand is worth more than two in the bush.

" Terrific. Why would you want to kill me?" I asked sarcastically, fully expecting something faintly ridiculous like " you slaughtered a whole orphanage filled with little children."  
Well, I got a ridiculous answer, but the seriousness and sheer disgust that it was delivered with startled me.

" You know why, you little bitch. You're the final of the gift- no one should possess such power; it belongs with the great kami-sama! You're an abomination, a disease upon this earth- but I suppose that's what expected of a demon." The man finished with a nearly delegable sneer, his loathing made clear.

I blinked. "…And I'm supposed to believe that," I deadpanned, disbelieving.

" You think it's a joke?" the man growled out, attempting to turn around-but my tight grip prevented that, thankfully. " The Jidame before the current had it, for kami's sake. Now, that power in his tight grasp was a blessing. It ought to belong to someone more worthy- not to some street rat like you."

My eyes narrowed into dangerous slits. If there was something that I couldn't stand, it was people with " high-and-mighty" complexes. And just what was a Jidame?

However, the man wasn't done yet. " I bet you have to perform special services just to get food, you little unworthy brat. Admit it, you're worthless-"

Well, at that insinuation…I saw red and wrenched his arm down even further so that I could pick up the nice, shiny knife he dropped.

Pure, hard rage grasped me at the same moment I picked up the knife's bandaged handle.

 

Next thing I knew, I stood there, blood dripping off of my face and spattering my clothes, panting and staring at the man I just killed.

" Well, fuck." I cursed, throwing the knife away, where it clattered on the stone.

I just killed a man for the first time in this life…terrific.  
No, I wouldn't loose my lunch because the many people I had to kill in my first life, which was in the feudal era, Japan, already stole my innocence. Bloody days, they were. Very, very bloody.

Shaking my head from those thoughts, I quickly wiped off the blood that sheeted on my arms and face. This was an information place, I needed to get going and find out about at least myself. Besides, someone's going to find out about the body. Then I'd get locked up for sure.

Setting off at a run, I began passing several doors.

 

World Maps…. History…. Fiction…Non Fiction…. (?) Scrolls…. Aha! village people information.

Barreling through the door, I scanned what seemed to be hundreds of bound sheets of paper. Most were labeled, however my eyes alighted on a folder to the extreme right of the room, sitting all alone on an apparently abandoned shelf.

On it read: " Final gift: 00."

I blinked. Before I killed him, I could remember the man telling me about something like this…

Right now, that sounded good place to start.

 

However…

I could hear a flood of people talking in loud, excited, worried voices, most of which seemed to be puttering around mister I'm-higher-than-you.

Damn that was fast!

In any case, I hissed in anger. This would prevent some things…and I didn't know my way around here. I would have to rely on sheer adrenaline and lots of quick thinking…. god damn it. I just died, then nearly died again, and I just killed the man who nearly made me drown.

Life so far was a bitch, no?

Well, in the words of my fighting instructor… it was time to make it MY bitch.

A grim smile stretched across my features before grabbing the folder and darting out the door, not even closing it. Who cares if they learned I took what could be my folder on myself? I had a right to learn a little about myself.

Even thinking all of this, I raced upwards through uses of many spiraling staircases. I really didn't need to get caught, now did I?  
I considered reading the sort-of booklet of myself while running up all of these steps before deciding that no, it would be a bad idea. Reading tends to mean slowing down, and slowing down equaled being caught killing someone, which could not be good.

Suddenly, I heard the rather suspicious sound of paper slipping out from paper, and I whirled around, grabbing the piece of paper that had fallen out of my little binder-thing out of mid-air and scanned it quickly, not wanting to waste more time than necessary.   
What I saw written surprised me.  
" Instrument for 00th by the 10th placed from its former position into the Jidame's office."

I looked up blankly, my mind processing this slowly. Whoever I killed said something about me having the " final gift," whatever that was. On the folder, before I grabbed it, I remembered quite clearly that it said "00" on it as well. So, I could safely guess that "00" referred to me, and that the tenth-thing must be…someone.  
If I could sweatdrop anime style, I would have. I slowly realized that the only real piece of information I had on the 'tenth' was that it probably was a person that did it, not who, when, or why. Not exactly in that order, either.

Glancing down at the paper I clutched in my tiny fist, I mused even further, running away quite forgotten: So I was supposed to receive some kind of instrument, huh? Probably referring to a weapon of some sort. Maybe a pair of katana? That would be awesome. With that, I drifted off into a dreamy haze of hard-earned love of weapons….  
Until the thundering of many feet rudely brought me back to earth a few minutes later.

" Oops. Forgot there's no time to waste…" Hoping this wasn't a fatal mistake I just made, I looked around frantically for means of escape.  
Blank wall, blank wall, Door but that's for info, nada, nothing-  
Suddenly, My eyes alighted on a huge, open-aired window. Directly across it lied a sandstone building that through the mist, I could make out in kanji:  
" Jidame."

A decidedly evil smirk, I was sure, crept up my new little body's face, hardly believing this new turn of events.

Oh yeah. Life was officially now my bitch.

 

Securing my grip on what appeared to be my files, I climbed quickly onto the window, crouched down as far as possible, and sprang into the mist.  
Suddenly, my body registered pain and the hardness of the building. I began sliding down, but then I felt around for a handhold and struck gold.  
Hmm. It felt like a window…  
Just to check, I hurtled my binder-like file at it and I heard a distinct crash of a windowpane breaking.  
Whoops. Oh well!  
Still grinning like a madwoman, I scrambled in through the wreckage and found that it seemed to be an office of some sort. A japanesey-important sort of office, the kind that shoguns would have in the feudal era…not that I saw one fully intact my first life, but I saw plenty of preserved and artificial ones in my fourth and seventh life.

" Jackpot!" I exclaimed in a delighted whisper-thing, and then scanned the room, thinking back to the instrument-thing.

Hmmm. Let's see…if I were a lord over this village-esque thing, where would I put something potentially dangerous?

My eyes scanned the room. Nothing so far…

Wait a minute. There was an ink-printed scroll hanging depicting of a calm ocean-thing with the moon above it.

Hey, cliché always had to start somewhere.  
I took off the scroll hanging, only to find a-  
Blank wall.  
Scowling, I felt around the wall where the scroll was hanging.  
I found one spot near the bottom, but it felt…weird. Like there was a traditional little slot-thing that you could easily break into, but at the same time there was this almost gluey substance surrounding the surface of it like a vapor.

I suddenly grinned evilly. When all else fails, you A) torch it. B) Throw something nice and heavy at it.

B sounded good right now.

I threw my binder/folder thing at it. Poor thing, so abused…but hey, it's what I got. And I didn't want to go in for property damage, thank you.  
But amazingly enough, the little slot-thing fell through, leaving a nice, square space that held a little rectangle positively covered in dust.

Eagerly, I reached inside, my mind already shaping all kinds of weapons. Dagger? Poison Vial? Chemicals that would blow up if shook?

What came out and was in my hand popped my fantasy quite badly.  
In my hand, innocently sitting, covered in bright green paint…  
Was. An. IPOD.

(A/N: Just to annoy you with pointless information, it has earbuds too. Lalala. Anyway, back to the prologue.)

" WHAT THE HELL?!" I shrieked in English, not even caring who would hear me. I was expecting some kind of awesome weapon, not a cutesy little iPod!! And while it's great for therapeutic uses, I wanted some awesome kick ass weapon, god dangit! I had a right!  
Frustrated, I kicked the wall where it came from. " I just recently died, I get into my new life only to find I was drowning, I killed a guy, people might either imprison me or accidentally kill me for the third time in a few hours, and what do I get?! An IPOD?!"

Unable to express the sheer amount of my discontent, I simply settled for a wordless shriek of annoyance. That being done, I forced myself to calm down. Being angry wouldn't do me any good…even if it were only an iPod. I needed to get the hell out of here before people came looking. It was bad enough as it was.

In any case, I snagged my binder-folder, stuffed the iPod into the area between my bony hips and a string-thing that barely held my pants up, and scrambled out the broken window where I had came from. Hopefully there would be more windows I could grab on to slow my fall.

 

And as my new luck would have it, I did grab several windows, and it slowed me down as predicted.

Sliding down from the last window, I collapsed on the stone pavement, exhaustion taking over as the last of my adrenaline faded. Still, I doggedly stood back up. I had to find cover fast, or I was going to regret it. Badly.

I looked around my surroundings. I was surrounded by mist, I didn't know where anything was-  
Shut up brain, you're not helping! I mentally reprimanded myself, looking around.  
My eyes alighted upon a dark window, albeit small, but not very noticeable.

 

Risky. But it would work.

Giving a small smile of victory at my burst of luck, I covered my head with my folder (which was beat up from the previous window-crash, but would do the job for what I was about to do), crouched, and sprang into the dark window.

One broken window and what felt like several rather splintery wooden boxes later, I was crouching in an inconspicuous corner, trying to look for a better hiding place I held currently. Always better to improve, I say.

In all honesty, it was pitch black. But that didn't really stop me- I could see a tiny bit. Like the wavering of an outline that seemed to be there but wasn't really…. oh, who was I kidding. It wasn't like I was going to get caught if I stayed like this, but I was going to make use of what I had of my time and person. That meant that I had to find a closet or something similar to that so one, I could check if my iPod was alive and had some batteries to spend. And if it were alive, it would give light. And if it gave light, I could be productive and actually read those poor, beat up files 'o mine.

Then, my eyes darted on something.

A very, very large box. Not coffin-like or anything, so it most likely wouldn't hold a body, but big…as in cupboard sized.

I grimaced. It would hold me in my annoyingly tiny (and scrawny) body, with room to spare. I got what I asked for…. but if I was going to be stuck in there…   
I shook my head. 'You're going to die anyway if you don't do this, and besides, there are worse fates than this. Be grateful you got what you wished for.'

Steeling my resolve against possible claustrophobia and the even more scary threat called " asphyxiation," I felt around for my binder-like folder, checked if the iPod was still in my pants waistline, (which thankfully, it was) and hopped in the box, pulling the lid over me firmly as I did so.

Crouching in the small space, I dug for my Nano and held the little rectangle   
Where I thought my face would be in the stifling darkness.  
" Here goes nothing."  
I pressed a button.

A blinding flash answered me, and I groaned aloud as my pupils shrank painfully into pinpricks.  
" God…mother…fuck." I swore harshly, closing my eyes against the glare of the sudden light; I had forgotten about that little side effect.  
Shaking my head, I twisted the thing downwards, wincing slightly as the earbuds clacked against the wood rather loudly. Damnit, I had to be more careful!  
But that aside, I deemed it safe to open my eyes once more and opened the glare of the light on my folder.

But in opening it up, what first struck my eyes was something very odd.  
The name of my last life was the same here.  
Cain Mirror Xapha.

Then all of a sudden, a mind-splitting agony erupted my consciousness.

Knowledge and memories began pouring into my brain:  
I lived at a shack-no, a hovel really that I had found at the corner of the town, I had to steal food, I never got any good clothing because in all honesty I had to steal that too, and I had to take the bad ones that no one wanted or else they'd hurt me even worse than they already did, I could never go outside at night period because they would hurt me and It would be hard to not bleed to death, I had no real possessions to speak of, The name of the village was named " The Hidden Village of Dreams" although apparently I as a child thought it was very odd that it was named that, The Jidaime worked as a sort of mayor, on and on.

But, I learned something very sad: I had received no love whatsoever in my time here. None. I didn't know what the word meant until I had up and died in my past life…so my Six-year old self, although judging by the many years of pain, I think I was more likely to be seven…maybe eight-year old self didn't know love of any sort. That's rather horrifying in itself.

But now… I tore myself away from the misery-filled thoughts, newly awoken by my past.  
But in the midst of all my confusion, I knew one thing was for certain:  
Now, more than ever, I had to get the hell out of here.

As if responding to my thoughts, my eyes flicked back into consciousness painfully, desperate to fill any gaps in my newfound knowledge as fast as I could.

Quickly, I scanned the page front page.  
It read:

Name: Cain Mirror Xapha

Age: 8

Blood Type: AB

Height: 3'6

Occupation: Weapon; The final one to receive the blessing of power; the no-tail demon. The no tail demon merges with it's chosen at birth, giving it unimaginable power as it grows. For this, she is number 00.

Village: Ours may be mythical to the outside world of blue skies and other such abnormalities, but we are still considered the village of the hidden dreams.

I tore my eyes away, biting my lip. So there was an average world out there. Thank god. When I meant " excitement" in my previous life, I didn't exactly mean this. I was si-no, eight for cripes sake!  
Sighing (and not knowing I just jinxed my fate beyond repair) I flipped through the rest of the pages.  
All of it seemed to be some sorts of techniques…strange. Jutsus? What the hell was this, naruto or something?  
Inwardly I laughed at the thought. There was no way! " Hidden Village of the dreams" and " No-tailed demon-" was all very well and good, but there was no such thing in Naruto, anyway. The Akatsuki would have come across the No-tail for sure in their quest to take over the world.

It didn't register to me that if it truly was naruto, I probably just changed it. And there WERE jutsus right in front of me, no? And the tailed beasts didn't merge with babies, they got sealed inside of them, so they were viable to take out again if you pummeled the seal enough.

 

Anyway, 'nuff with the ranting.

Flicking the iPod's light off, I wound the earbuds that came with it around it several times and stared off into the darkness, thinking about what I could do next.  
I had 2 options.  
1): stay in here and pray that no one catches you, then go outside and pack what you have as fast as you can.  
2): just do the latter. Now.

Biting my lip, I sighed. " One is more risky than the other, but it would get me out faster." I murmured softly, looking all around me. I was in a box, I may or may not die of asphyxiation otherwise…what did I have to lose?

Steeling my resolve once more, I softly lifted the box lid, then placed it on what I guessed to be the floor. Then, I jumped out after it, my bare feet padding against the floor without a sound.   
The light was penetrating the room a little more now, enabling me to see definite outlines of everything. So, now I could see lots and lots of boxes, all close to the broken window.  
I grinned. My luck was on a roll! I just hoped it didn't die out.

Climbing the boxes, I leapt out of the window. No one was there.

" Mwahahaha, I'll be out of here yet you stupid child-abusers!" I chirped in an undertone, feeling rather like I had smoked some Magic Mushrooms from Amsterdam for that sentence…then it faded into a grim determination.  
The first obstacle: getting past the villagers without being noticed.

Luckily, (yet, unluckily) I didn't have any cuts to speak of from the two broken windows I crashed through, so I couldn't use that as an excuse for all the blood spattered on my clothes, left over from when I killed that man…whoever he was.  
Biting my lip, I felt for the thickness of the fabric of my tank top…and as my luck would have it, it was pretty thick.

I took it off and put it back on again, this time inside out. The bloodstains looked like a trick of the light now…now, this I could get past the hateful villagers.

I felt a giddy, silly smile start spreading on my face once more as I began sprinting my way out of my little hidey-hole and into the village streets. I randomly wondered if I should start screaming " Bird incoming" and start flapping my arms wildly just for the hell of it, and to make the villagers a bit more pissed off at me in this place, where everyone has an apparent stick up their butts.  
I mean, I was going to escape. Probably.

So what did I care?

The solution was simple: I didn't, but I wanted to get out UNSCATHED.

Still sprinting, I nearly pouted at that thought- but I was feeling too high on my imaginary magic mushrooms to actually do so.  
But out of the corner of my eye, when I glanced at the villagers passing me by now, (apparently they thought I retired for the day or something) I saw that they were actually rather startled by my grin. Hmm, maybe I could do without the " bird incoming" after all.

Pat, pat, pat, pat, pat, pat…  
My feet went, barely making a sound as I ran like a bat out of hell (well actually...how did bats run? They flew!) Through the cobblestone streets, adrenaline fueling me as nothing else would. Finally, I saw a familiar shack and ducked inside it.

My shack was in fact a broken-up house, abandoned after years of use- there were whispers about it being haunted, but that was just I, doing mundane chores or just starving in a corner. Literally.

I shook my head. Now was escaping time, not emo brooding time.

…Was the place starting to get to me? I wondered, a slight horror beginning to grow at a rapid speed as I began the process of letting it sink in.

NO! I shook that thought away rather violently and blanked my mind of all thoughts, trying to think clearly and logically-and NOT hampered by newfound misery.

I raced into what I knew to be my room and frantically grabbed a old worn rucksack, abandoned by the previous owner and now what I usually used to steal food and clothing with, and began stuffing those items in, as sparse as they were. No bed for me, just a soft piece of floor.

Pausing briefly, I looked at the last piece of clothing I had that wasn't stuffed away.  
It was one of the nicer pieces- it was a dark emerald green dress, long-sleeved but light against the skin. I quickly shed my dirty grey clothing in favor of that, eager to be rid of all bloodstains.  
Grabbing a broken comb I also had found from the previous owner, I quickly ran it through my messy hair, leaving it to curl and stuffed it in my bag; I ran out of the shack, mentally saying a quick " good-bye" to the only home I ever knew before venturing down the street, by the exit.

No one bothered watching me, even as I passed that horrible ditch.

I encountered a pair of gates- Strange and twisted they were, rather like a pair of big, thorny brambles.

Smiling slightly at the irony of what I did in the past few hours, I pulled out my binder of info from the rucksack and threw it hard at the bramble-gates.

They swung open, amazingly enough. Nothing obscuring my way.

Smiling like no tomorrow, I ventured into the unknown, rescuing my binder as I did so.

The bramble bushes closed with a soft rustle behind me, and I could see blue skies…  
And a sea of sand.

I gulped and bravely ventured forward. Oh well, if I was going to die, I was going to live free and die hard…even if it was in a sea of sand.

**Author's Note:**

> BAB: -collapses- That. Was. Horrifying. 31 pages, and not even edited. I feel sad. Anyway…. Here are some points, before you ask:
> 
> 1: THIS IS ONLY THE PROLOUGE. I KNOW THERE'S NOTHING REALLY NARUTO RELATED YET, BUT I CAN PROMISE YOU THERE WILL BE LOTS OF THAT IN THE NEXT CHAPTER. AND YES, THIS PIECE WAS RELAVANT.
> 
> 2: for those who are actually complaining it's too long and novel-like to read quickly, too bad for you. I wanted detail, and I also happen to be the authoress.
> 
> 3: Please don't flame me. I worked a month on this thing, and while I'd like constructive criticism, outright hate is just wasting your time, because quite frankly I will only get mad back and not really give a shit deep down in my heart.
> 
> 4: never, ever, EVER expect this kind of chapter again. It killed me. I'll make long chapters, but nothing of this scale.
> 
> 5: I am not twenty, so don't expect me to write as good as a twenty year old or older. Thank you.
> 
> Also, I do not own naruto, or anything that is publicly copyrighted and NOT MINE.
> 
> Please review. I hope you enjoyed it.


End file.
